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China faces a difficult task in its efforts to catch up with Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite service.
SpaceX’s Starlink already has nearly 7,000 operational satellites in orbit and serves about 5 million customers in more than 100 countries, according to SpaceX. The service is intended to offer high-speed Internet to customers in remote and underserved areas.
SpaceX hopes to expand its megaconstellation up to 42,000 satellites. China is aiming for a similar scale and hopes to have around 38,000 satellites in three of its low-Earth orbit Internet projects, known as Qianfan, Guo Wang and Honghu-3.
Apart from Starlink, based in Europe Eutelsat One Web It has also launched more than 630 Internet satellites into low Earth orbit, or LEO. Amazon It also has plans for a large LEO constellation, currently called Project Kuiper, made up of more than 3,000 satellites, although the company has only launched two. prototype satellites until now.
With so much competition, why would China even bother investing money and effort into such mega-constellations?
“Starlink has really proven that it is capable of providing Internet access to individuals and citizens in remote corners and providing citizens the ability to access the Internet and any website, any application that they want,” said Steve Feldstein, senior member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“For China, a big push has been to censor what citizens can access,” Feldstein said. “And then they say, ‘Well, this presents a real threat. If Starlink can provide uncensored content to our citizens or to individuals in countries allied with us, that’s something that could really get through our censorship regime.’ . And that’s why we need to find an alternative.'”
Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting, agrees. “In certain countries, China might see this almost as a differentiator. It’s like, ‘Well, maybe we’re not as quick to market, but hey, we’ll censor your Internet if you want us to,’ and we’ll do it with a smile on our faces.” the face'”.
Experts say that while Chinese constellations won’t be the internet provider of choice for places like the United States, Western Europe, Canada and other US allies, many other regions could be open to a Chinese service.
“There are a couple of geographic areas in particular that could be attractive for a Starlink-like competitor, specifically one made by China, including China itself,” said Juliana Suess, an associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “Russia, for example, but also Afghanistan and Syria are not yet covered by Starlink. And there are also large areas of Africa that are not yet covered.”
“We have seen that 70% of the 4G infrastructure on the African continent is already built by Huawei,” Suess added. “And having a spatial perspective for that could lead to further advances there.”
In addition to being a tool of geopolitical influence, having a proprietary satellite Internet constellation is increasingly becoming a national security necessity, especially when terrestrial Internet infrastructure is damaged during war.
“When it comes to the difference that Starlink technology has played on the Ukrainian battlefield, one of the big advancements we’ve seen has been the emergence of drone warfare and the connected battlefield,” Feldstein said. “Having satellite-based weaponry is something that is considered a crucial military advantage. And that’s why I think China sees all of that and says that investing in this is absolutely critical to our national security objectives.”
look at the video to learn more about why China is building these mega-constellations and the challenges the country will face.
